Grouch
Formed from the ashes of early 90's noise merchants and press favourites, MIDWAY STILL, Grouch were formed in 1997 as a three piece, Thomson and Konopka from MS joined by the drum monster Neil Cooper, later of Therapy?. In this guise they released a 7" only recording of Smile on PPP. The single received radio support from Lamacq and Peel. Just before this they had begun working with Tav, then manager of Ash (later The Ting Tings), and had signed a publishing deal with Mike Smith at EMI Music (now head of Columbia Records).
After Smile the band had a change of drummers, Cooper being replaced by Robert Schultzberg, who had recently left Placebo. This, however, was a short-lived arrangement resulting in only a handful of demos and was soon followed by another change, this time into a four piece with the addition of Lorna Lithgow (previously of Yummy Fur) on keyboards. This line up released another 7" only single, Up to You on Southpaw, which once again got good support from Radio 1 (getting played on Radcliff's afternoon show twice, as well as receiving several airings by Lamacq and XFM).
Having split with their management, the band again changed, losing the keyboards but gaining another guitarist and vocalist and the line up settled as:
Paul Thomson - Guitar and vocals.
Carmel Lee - Guitar and vocals.
Jan Konopka - Bass.
Clive Dicker - Drums.
The band then set up their own label, Antipop, as a means of releasing their material and in January 1999 the single Out of It came out to the usual good support from Radio 1 and XFM and reviews in NME and Kerrang. Around this time the band did an acoustic set on the Sean Hughes radio show on GLR.
The second release on the label was Smile (re-recorded since its first release) which appeared in April 1999 to a similar reception (a live session on GLR) and this was promoted by a short tour of the country.
The next release was the mini album Dynamo in June 1999. The album was produced by long time friend of the band Paul Tipler who had cut his engineering teeth on Midway Still records and who had since gone on to record albums by Stereolab and Idlewild among many others. Paul had salvaged the original recording of Smile and produced all but one of the songs recorded after that.
After this, interest waned both within and without the band until eventually Paul went and joined Minuteman on bass and Snuff on guitar.
And that was that...until now...! The album Dynamo and other exclusive recordings are now available on B&T; enjoy this gem of an album.
After Smile the band had a change of drummers, Cooper being replaced by Robert Schultzberg, who had recently left Placebo. This, however, was a short-lived arrangement resulting in only a handful of demos and was soon followed by another change, this time into a four piece with the addition of Lorna Lithgow (previously of Yummy Fur) on keyboards. This line up released another 7" only single, Up to You on Southpaw, which once again got good support from Radio 1 (getting played on Radcliff's afternoon show twice, as well as receiving several airings by Lamacq and XFM).
Having split with their management, the band again changed, losing the keyboards but gaining another guitarist and vocalist and the line up settled as:
Paul Thomson - Guitar and vocals.
Carmel Lee - Guitar and vocals.
Jan Konopka - Bass.
Clive Dicker - Drums.
The band then set up their own label, Antipop, as a means of releasing their material and in January 1999 the single Out of It came out to the usual good support from Radio 1 and XFM and reviews in NME and Kerrang. Around this time the band did an acoustic set on the Sean Hughes radio show on GLR.
The second release on the label was Smile (re-recorded since its first release) which appeared in April 1999 to a similar reception (a live session on GLR) and this was promoted by a short tour of the country.
The next release was the mini album Dynamo in June 1999. The album was produced by long time friend of the band Paul Tipler who had cut his engineering teeth on Midway Still records and who had since gone on to record albums by Stereolab and Idlewild among many others. Paul had salvaged the original recording of Smile and produced all but one of the songs recorded after that.
After this, interest waned both within and without the band until eventually Paul went and joined Minuteman on bass and Snuff on guitar.
And that was that...until now...! The album Dynamo and other exclusive recordings are now available on B&T; enjoy this gem of an album.
